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CDC calls for urgent change to current gonorrhea treatment regimen

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
 
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16 August 2012, 12:36

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is calling for an urgent change in the current gonorrhea treatment regimen to prevent the gonococcus from developing complete resistance to the last effective antibiotic.

The CDC's most recently published guidelines call for immediate discontinuation of oral ceftriaxone, one of two drugs previously recommended for treating gonorrhea, and for physicians to instead use injectable ceftriaxone in combination with either azithromycin or doxycycline.

"Only an urgent change in treatment will help us avoid losing a powerful drug like ceftriaxone," writes CDC expert Robert Kirkcaldy. "It is truly the last drug we have in our arsenal to fight gonorrhea, but gonorrhea resistance to it is rapidly growing. We hope that combining the injectable form with two other antibiotics will slow the development of resistance."

Mr Kirkcaldy says moving away from oral ceftriaxone is difficult because the pills have been the only viable treatment for gonorrhoea in developing countries where access to syringes and doctors who can administer injections is limited. But experts are having to take the plunge. A recent study of 6,000 Americans with gonorrhoea found that resistance to cefixime and ceftriaxone is on the rise. The number of N. gonorrhoeae strains resistant to cefixime rose from 0.1 per cent to 1.5 per cent between 2006 and 2011, and to ceftriaxone from 0 per cent to 0.4 per cent.

The CDC recommendations also call on pharmaceutical companies to speed up the search for new effective antibiotics. By 2020, at least 10 new antibacterial drugs should be created. Experts also call on the population to take greater responsibility for their health, reduce the number of sexual partners, and consistently use condoms.

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